Scan barcode
ella_holden_'s reviews
16 reviews
Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart
5.0
- p. 137 'He lay there, upside down and a world away...It was James that changed it. The pinkie that had lain next to his own crossed over and locked over his. The electrical current that had burned at the border jumped on to his skin and he was scorched...it was good to put your weight on someone else, even if it was just for a short while.'
- p. 228 'it was what they didn't say next that made Mungo nervous...they sat like that, just grinning until their faces hurt'. 'A fissure Mungo hadn't known about cracked open in his chest; beneath it was a hollow feeling that had never bothered him before. It was an agony not to raise his own hand and touch the hairs James's fingers had licked. It burned. He wanted nothing more than to feel the warmth left by his touch. he closed his eyes and said, 'I feel sick.'...James leaned across the distance and placed a kiss on his lips...It was like hot buttered toast when you were starving. It was that good.'
- p. 236 'it was a nothing that felt like an everything.'
- p. 228 'it was what they didn't say next that made Mungo nervous...they sat like that, just grinning until their faces hurt'. 'A fissure Mungo hadn't known about cracked open in his chest; beneath it was a hollow feeling that had never bothered him before. It was an agony not to raise his own hand and touch the hairs James's fingers had licked. It burned. He wanted nothing more than to feel the warmth left by his touch. he closed his eyes and said, 'I feel sick.'...James leaned across the distance and placed a kiss on his lips...It was like hot buttered toast when you were starving. It was that good.'
- p. 236 'it was a nothing that felt like an everything.'
Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut
p. 3 ‘i have this disease late at night sometimes, involving alcohol and the telephone’
p. 5 ‘the smell of mustard gas and roses’
p. 11 ‘you’ll pretend you were men instead of babies, and you’ll be played in the movies by Frank Sinatra and John Wayne or some of those other glamorous, war-loving, dirty old men. And war will look just wonderful, so we’ll have a lot more of them. And they’ll be fought by babies like the babies upstairs’.
p. 14 ‘there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre. Everybody is supposed to e dead, to never say anything or want anything ever again. Everything is supposed to be very quiet after a massacre, and it always is, except for the birds. And what do the birds say? All there is to say about a massacre, things like ‘Poo-tee-weet?’’
p. 15 ‘as an Earthling, I had to believe whatever clocks said’. ‘I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow. I feel my fate in what i cannot fear. I learn by going where i have to go’
p. 16 ‘she did look back, and i love her for that, because it was so human’. ‘This one is a failure, and had to be, since it was written by a pillar of salt’
p. 17 ‘Billy Pilgram has come unstuck in time’. ‘He is in a constant state of stage fright, he says, because he never knows what part of his life he is going to have to act in next’
p. 19 ‘when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral. All moments, past, present, and future, always have existed, always will exist’. ‘It is just an illusion we have here on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once a moment is gone it is gone forever. When a Tralfamadorian sees a corpse, all he thinks is that the dead person is in bad condition in that particular moment. but that the same person is just fine in plenty of other moments’.
p. 20 ‘so it goes’
p. 23 ‘the theoretical corpses laughed and ate a hearty noontime meal’
p. 24 ‘he looked like a filthy flamingo’
p. 31 ‘his attention began to swing grandly through the full arc of his life, passing into death, which was violet light’
p. 32 ‘how did i get so old?’
p. 34 ‘he was in the back seat of his car, which was why he couldn’t find the steering wheel’
p. 36 ‘his voice was a gorgeous instrument’
p. 37 ‘curiosity as to why one american would try to murder another one so far from home, and why the victim should laugh’
p. 39 ‘the boy was as beautiful as eve’. ‘Now they were dying in the snow, feeling nothing, turning the snow to the colour of raspberry sherbet’
p. 43 ‘the people who lived here hated it so much that they had burned down a lot of it a month before. It was all they had, and they’d wrecked it.’
p. 44 ‘he was unenthusiastic about living’. ‘grant me the serenity to accept the things i cannot change, courage to change the things i can, and wisdom always to tell the difference’
p. 45 ‘convulsions made the man dance flappingly all the time’
p. 47 ‘One of them singled out Billy’s face for a moment, then focused at infinity again. There was a tiny plume of smoke at infinity. There was a battle there. People were dying there. So it goes.’
p. 51 ‘when food came in, the human beings were quiet and trusting and beautiful. They shared’. ‘The queer earth was a mosaic of sleepers who nestled like spoons’
p. 52 ‘he felt spooky and luminous, felt as though he were wrapped in a cool fur that was full of static electricity’
p. 54 ‘his blue and ivory feet crushing the wet salad of the lawn’
p. 55 ‘That is a very Earthling question to ask… Why you? Why us for that matter? Why anything? Because this moment simply is. Have you ever seen bugs trapped in amber?
Yes
Well, here we are… trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why’
p. 59 ‘the man was all alone in the night’
p. 61 ‘trapped in another blob of amber’
p. 62 ‘i’ve visited 31 inhabited planets in the universe, and i have studied reports on 100 more. Only on Earth is there any talk of free will’
p. 63 ‘the creatures can see where each star has been and where it is going, so that the heavens are filled with rarefied, luminous spaghetti.’
p. 64 ‘there is no beginning, no middle, no end, no suspense, no moral, no causes, no effects. What we love in our books are the depths of many marvellous moments seen all at one time’
p. 66 ‘everybody was legally alive now’
p. 70 ‘this isn’t a man. it’s a broken kite’
p. 74 ‘she upset Billy simply by being his mother. She made him feel embarrassed and ungrateful and weak because she has gone to so much trouble to give him life, and to keep that life going, and Billy didn’t really like life at all’.
p. 75 ‘that duet between the dumb, praying lady and the big, hollow man who was so full of loving echoes’
p. 76 ‘we’ve had to imagine the war here, and we have imagined that it was being fought by ageing men like ourselves. We had forgotten that wars were caught by babies’
p. 84 ‘he had always pressed it, and he always will. We always let him and we always will let him. The moment is structured that way’
p. 85 ‘On other days we have wars as horrible as any you’ve ever seen or read about. There isn’t anything we can do about them, so we simply don’t look at them. We ignore them. We spend eternity looking at pleasant moments… ignore the awful times, and concentrate on the good ones’
p. 87 ‘two beautiful people, a young man and a young woman in evening clothes, were at the rail in the stern, loving each other and their dreams and the wake’
p. 88 ‘everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt’
p. 5 ‘the smell of mustard gas and roses’
p. 11 ‘you’ll pretend you were men instead of babies, and you’ll be played in the movies by Frank Sinatra and John Wayne or some of those other glamorous, war-loving, dirty old men. And war will look just wonderful, so we’ll have a lot more of them. And they’ll be fought by babies like the babies upstairs’.
p. 14 ‘there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre. Everybody is supposed to e dead, to never say anything or want anything ever again. Everything is supposed to be very quiet after a massacre, and it always is, except for the birds. And what do the birds say? All there is to say about a massacre, things like ‘Poo-tee-weet?’’
p. 15 ‘as an Earthling, I had to believe whatever clocks said’. ‘I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow. I feel my fate in what i cannot fear. I learn by going where i have to go’
p. 16 ‘she did look back, and i love her for that, because it was so human’. ‘This one is a failure, and had to be, since it was written by a pillar of salt’
p. 17 ‘Billy Pilgram has come unstuck in time’. ‘He is in a constant state of stage fright, he says, because he never knows what part of his life he is going to have to act in next’
p. 19 ‘when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral. All moments, past, present, and future, always have existed, always will exist’. ‘It is just an illusion we have here on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once a moment is gone it is gone forever. When a Tralfamadorian sees a corpse, all he thinks is that the dead person is in bad condition in that particular moment. but that the same person is just fine in plenty of other moments’.
p. 20 ‘so it goes’
p. 23 ‘the theoretical corpses laughed and ate a hearty noontime meal’
p. 24 ‘he looked like a filthy flamingo’
p. 31 ‘his attention began to swing grandly through the full arc of his life, passing into death, which was violet light’
p. 32 ‘how did i get so old?’
p. 34 ‘he was in the back seat of his car, which was why he couldn’t find the steering wheel’
p. 36 ‘his voice was a gorgeous instrument’
p. 37 ‘curiosity as to why one american would try to murder another one so far from home, and why the victim should laugh’
p. 39 ‘the boy was as beautiful as eve’. ‘Now they were dying in the snow, feeling nothing, turning the snow to the colour of raspberry sherbet’
p. 43 ‘the people who lived here hated it so much that they had burned down a lot of it a month before. It was all they had, and they’d wrecked it.’
p. 44 ‘he was unenthusiastic about living’. ‘grant me the serenity to accept the things i cannot change, courage to change the things i can, and wisdom always to tell the difference’
p. 45 ‘convulsions made the man dance flappingly all the time’
p. 47 ‘One of them singled out Billy’s face for a moment, then focused at infinity again. There was a tiny plume of smoke at infinity. There was a battle there. People were dying there. So it goes.’
p. 51 ‘when food came in, the human beings were quiet and trusting and beautiful. They shared’. ‘The queer earth was a mosaic of sleepers who nestled like spoons’
p. 52 ‘he felt spooky and luminous, felt as though he were wrapped in a cool fur that was full of static electricity’
p. 54 ‘his blue and ivory feet crushing the wet salad of the lawn’
p. 55 ‘That is a very Earthling question to ask… Why you? Why us for that matter? Why anything? Because this moment simply is. Have you ever seen bugs trapped in amber?
Yes
Well, here we are… trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why’
p. 59 ‘the man was all alone in the night’
p. 61 ‘trapped in another blob of amber’
p. 62 ‘i’ve visited 31 inhabited planets in the universe, and i have studied reports on 100 more. Only on Earth is there any talk of free will’
p. 63 ‘the creatures can see where each star has been and where it is going, so that the heavens are filled with rarefied, luminous spaghetti.’
p. 64 ‘there is no beginning, no middle, no end, no suspense, no moral, no causes, no effects. What we love in our books are the depths of many marvellous moments seen all at one time’
p. 66 ‘everybody was legally alive now’
p. 70 ‘this isn’t a man. it’s a broken kite’
p. 74 ‘she upset Billy simply by being his mother. She made him feel embarrassed and ungrateful and weak because she has gone to so much trouble to give him life, and to keep that life going, and Billy didn’t really like life at all’.
p. 75 ‘that duet between the dumb, praying lady and the big, hollow man who was so full of loving echoes’
p. 76 ‘we’ve had to imagine the war here, and we have imagined that it was being fought by ageing men like ourselves. We had forgotten that wars were caught by babies’
p. 84 ‘he had always pressed it, and he always will. We always let him and we always will let him. The moment is structured that way’
p. 85 ‘On other days we have wars as horrible as any you’ve ever seen or read about. There isn’t anything we can do about them, so we simply don’t look at them. We ignore them. We spend eternity looking at pleasant moments… ignore the awful times, and concentrate on the good ones’
p. 87 ‘two beautiful people, a young man and a young woman in evening clothes, were at the rail in the stern, loving each other and their dreams and the wake’
p. 88 ‘everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt’
Where Reasons End by Yiyun Li
5.0
p. 10 ‘you were the one better at hiding’
p. 12 ‘timeless is this world we are making, tenseless is its language’. ‘love is not made to last’
p. 16 ‘pass-me-ups’
p. 17 ‘who can say to love doesn’t also mean to disappoint and deceive? I said. Those who disappoint or deceive don’t always do so from love, he said.’
p. 19 ‘i don’t have to have days to live now. And yet I have to live in days, I said. I’m sorry, he said. Days: the easiest possession, requiring only automatic participation.’ ‘Never apologise, I said, for what you have let go’
p. 22 ‘It’s lazy minded of you to say you don’t believe in something that you don’t understand’
p. 26 ‘not running away together, not running away separately, but running into each other constantly’. ‘would you have found me had i decided to remain lost to you?’
p. 30 ‘Does one have to stay out of part of one’s own mind? I asked. If you don’t want to be out of your mine entirely, he said.’ ‘To love is to trespass’
p. 35 ‘sometimes what you make up is realer than the real’
p. 36 ‘leaves are always falling’
p. 37 ‘nature is not small.’ ‘People can look and look and look without seeing anything’. ‘Seeing without having to look’
p. 39 ‘the world never tires of dimming the bright and blunting the sharp’
p. 41 ‘grey and cold, gloomy. Precisely the weather I live, he said. I wish i could bake something’. ‘To wish was to hope, and to hope was to expect’
p. 44 ‘don’t you see i want my life to be something more than long, I sang’
p. 45 ‘with some one else’s furniture staging some else’s life’
p. 47 ‘oh, people always die, alone or later’
p. 48 ‘what could i catch on this grey, wet morning? Not the smile on your face, not the light in your eyes, not a blue cat, not a purple penguin, no dust in the wind, not a thought whispering in your ears, so loud hah is had drowned out all the music of the world. What, my child, can i catch now, when all has become invisible?’
p. 53 ‘in the moment: a life made of today and today and today and today.’ ‘Time is like money. Don’t get into debt by spending what you don’t have.’
p. 54 ‘most people don’t want to admit failure so they keep taking more credits from more tomorrows and get into deeper debt’
p. 56 ‘why write, if you can feel? I always imagine writing is for people who don’t want to feel or don’t know how to. And reading? I asked. For those who do’
p. 67 ‘my mind is not a closed room. Mine has more windows, he said. What is outside your windows? All the good things you can’t see’
p. 70 ‘days where we live’
p. 73 ‘I feel quite settled. sedimented. What is it that’s sedimented? I asked. Everything about me that used to disturb me…I’m all clear now, pure and perfect, just the way i want’
p. 75 ‘perhaps human history is driven by the desire to fight against our fadable and erasable future’
p. 78 ‘one can stop being alive, but one’s self does not stop being itself’. ‘You cannot demand that everyone be perfect. I can forgive everyone for being imperfect. But not yourself. I tried, Mummy, I did try’
p. 79 ‘And who, my dear child, has taken the word loveable out of your dictionary and mine, and replaced it with perfect? I wish you had made me an enemy, rather than yourself… You can’t be that for me, Mummy, I’ve found a perfect enemy in myself.’
p. 85 ‘the tears were a veneer over the unspeakable’
p. 90 ‘preparing is not experiencing. Pre-living is not living’
p. 100 ‘I know my words are not enough to express my devastation at your loss and my words will not do much to alleviate your pain, but these words are all i have’
p. 103 ‘wishing you were somehow here again’. ‘Limited by our living selves’
p. 106 ‘there is much more sense and feeling involved in stupidity’
p. 110 ‘a noun does not always remain a wall’
p. 111 ‘are you assigned to play this incongruous music called life?’
p. 112 ‘I don’t mind that life is not perfect, I do mind that I cannot perfect myself in an imperfect life. Perfection is like a single snowflake, it melts. A perfectionist melts too.’
p. 116 ‘a liveable life, an inevitable death’
p. 117 ‘if we don’t have to earn our time, how easily we squander it.’ ‘well-spent time is overrated’
p. 119 ‘things you’re good at may not treat you well in return’. ‘They think of me as a shipwreck, don’t they?’
p. 120 ‘People are afraid of death, people are afraid of the dead, and people are afraid of unusual decisions. I wonder if fear is what keeps people going in life… Who can tell the difference between hope and fear?’
p. 121 ‘which, between hope and dear, had made life unlovable for him?’
p. 122 ‘can a ship sail when it is loaded with what it is not equipped to carry?’
p. 123 ‘you cannot undo many things in life’
p. 125 ‘every time someone says, Trust me, I want to say, Why should I?’ ‘how words waste space’
p. 127 ‘a childhood ends, he said. Even the best parents can’t change that’
p. 128 ‘If you don’t know the precise location of that somewhere, does it become nowhere?
It’s still somewhere.
What do you call a place between somewhere and nowhere?
Between somewhere and nowhere - on some days that place feels more abysmal than on other days.
Anywhere between somewhere and nowhere would still be somewhere.
Are you somewhere too?
Of course. Nowhere is like infinity and beyond. It’s possible to be closer if you try. It’s impossible to arrive nowhere’
p. 133 ‘any moment that comes after time is aftertime.
Are we in aftertime then?
I am, but not you.
Why not me?
You’ve said you live in days, so you are still in time. You can’t live in aftertime’
p. 134 ‘i thought we had prepared him to live’
p. 135 ‘how ignorant and happy i was beforetime’
p. 136 ‘you can’t step into the same river twice’
p. 139 ‘I prefer a world made of the perishable, not the inevitable.
Inevitable makes time more bearable.
Time doesn’t make sense if not for the perishable’
p. 140 ‘dreams are but prologue to days, epilogue to other days, written by our faltering minds’. ‘Fundamentally dreaming is injustice inflicted upon whoever is being dreamed of?’
p. 141 ‘if days are where we live, I will always want to know how people live in their days’
p. 142 ‘what do you do all day?
Oh the things you don’t know. Dreaming. Dreaming. Thinking. Dreaming.’
p. 143 ‘what do you have to bear?
Things that are always with me, with it without a physical body’
p. 145 ‘what if we don’t have to believe in anything, perhaps living only requires resolutions’. ‘time thus broken down makes quicksand…what you call quicksand is it reality…other people live on other kinds of quicksand’
p. 146 ‘what if an abyss can be made into a natural habitat?’ ‘what we need is not a light that will lead us somewhere, but the resolution to be nowhere, even if it’s ever and forever’. ‘Life is imperfect, but it does mean something, no?
Yes, it’s a consolation prize, but i don’t live for consolation prizes’
p. 153 ‘a mins that sees no path or direction to flee despair can be expanded nevertheless.’ ‘Wishing only wounds the heart’
p. 156 ‘she represents the quintessential never-lasting news of good old time’
p. 158 ‘he wanted his heart to stop beating and his mind to rest…just to know how it would feel, released from destruction… breathing his bronzen breath at the azury centre of time.’
p. 160 ‘words not meant for me but picked up by me in any case’
p. 161 ‘writing fiction is to eavesdrop on your characters’ hearts’
p. 163 ‘will the memory paper catch words get to be said?’
p. 167 ‘words fall short, yes, but sometimes their shadows can reach the unspeakable… we look for some depth in words when we can’t find it in the three-dimensional world, no?’
p. 168 ‘here is where you are, not where i am. I am in fiction, he said. I am fiction now’
p. 170 ‘if one is not lost, can one be found again?’.
p. 12 ‘timeless is this world we are making, tenseless is its language’. ‘love is not made to last’
p. 16 ‘pass-me-ups’
p. 17 ‘who can say to love doesn’t also mean to disappoint and deceive? I said. Those who disappoint or deceive don’t always do so from love, he said.’
p. 19 ‘i don’t have to have days to live now. And yet I have to live in days, I said. I’m sorry, he said. Days: the easiest possession, requiring only automatic participation.’ ‘Never apologise, I said, for what you have let go’
p. 22 ‘It’s lazy minded of you to say you don’t believe in something that you don’t understand’
p. 26 ‘not running away together, not running away separately, but running into each other constantly’. ‘would you have found me had i decided to remain lost to you?’
p. 30 ‘Does one have to stay out of part of one’s own mind? I asked. If you don’t want to be out of your mine entirely, he said.’ ‘To love is to trespass’
p. 35 ‘sometimes what you make up is realer than the real’
p. 36 ‘leaves are always falling’
p. 37 ‘nature is not small.’ ‘People can look and look and look without seeing anything’. ‘Seeing without having to look’
p. 39 ‘the world never tires of dimming the bright and blunting the sharp’
p. 41 ‘grey and cold, gloomy. Precisely the weather I live, he said. I wish i could bake something’. ‘To wish was to hope, and to hope was to expect’
p. 44 ‘don’t you see i want my life to be something more than long, I sang’
p. 45 ‘with some one else’s furniture staging some else’s life’
p. 47 ‘oh, people always die, alone or later’
p. 48 ‘what could i catch on this grey, wet morning? Not the smile on your face, not the light in your eyes, not a blue cat, not a purple penguin, no dust in the wind, not a thought whispering in your ears, so loud hah is had drowned out all the music of the world. What, my child, can i catch now, when all has become invisible?’
p. 53 ‘in the moment: a life made of today and today and today and today.’ ‘Time is like money. Don’t get into debt by spending what you don’t have.’
p. 54 ‘most people don’t want to admit failure so they keep taking more credits from more tomorrows and get into deeper debt’
p. 56 ‘why write, if you can feel? I always imagine writing is for people who don’t want to feel or don’t know how to. And reading? I asked. For those who do’
p. 67 ‘my mind is not a closed room. Mine has more windows, he said. What is outside your windows? All the good things you can’t see’
p. 70 ‘days where we live’
p. 73 ‘I feel quite settled. sedimented. What is it that’s sedimented? I asked. Everything about me that used to disturb me…I’m all clear now, pure and perfect, just the way i want’
p. 75 ‘perhaps human history is driven by the desire to fight against our fadable and erasable future’
p. 78 ‘one can stop being alive, but one’s self does not stop being itself’. ‘You cannot demand that everyone be perfect. I can forgive everyone for being imperfect. But not yourself. I tried, Mummy, I did try’
p. 79 ‘And who, my dear child, has taken the word loveable out of your dictionary and mine, and replaced it with perfect? I wish you had made me an enemy, rather than yourself… You can’t be that for me, Mummy, I’ve found a perfect enemy in myself.’
p. 85 ‘the tears were a veneer over the unspeakable’
p. 90 ‘preparing is not experiencing. Pre-living is not living’
p. 100 ‘I know my words are not enough to express my devastation at your loss and my words will not do much to alleviate your pain, but these words are all i have’
p. 103 ‘wishing you were somehow here again’. ‘Limited by our living selves’
p. 106 ‘there is much more sense and feeling involved in stupidity’
p. 110 ‘a noun does not always remain a wall’
p. 111 ‘are you assigned to play this incongruous music called life?’
p. 112 ‘I don’t mind that life is not perfect, I do mind that I cannot perfect myself in an imperfect life. Perfection is like a single snowflake, it melts. A perfectionist melts too.’
p. 116 ‘a liveable life, an inevitable death’
p. 117 ‘if we don’t have to earn our time, how easily we squander it.’ ‘well-spent time is overrated’
p. 119 ‘things you’re good at may not treat you well in return’. ‘They think of me as a shipwreck, don’t they?’
p. 120 ‘People are afraid of death, people are afraid of the dead, and people are afraid of unusual decisions. I wonder if fear is what keeps people going in life… Who can tell the difference between hope and fear?’
p. 121 ‘which, between hope and dear, had made life unlovable for him?’
p. 122 ‘can a ship sail when it is loaded with what it is not equipped to carry?’
p. 123 ‘you cannot undo many things in life’
p. 125 ‘every time someone says, Trust me, I want to say, Why should I?’ ‘how words waste space’
p. 127 ‘a childhood ends, he said. Even the best parents can’t change that’
p. 128 ‘If you don’t know the precise location of that somewhere, does it become nowhere?
It’s still somewhere.
What do you call a place between somewhere and nowhere?
Between somewhere and nowhere - on some days that place feels more abysmal than on other days.
Anywhere between somewhere and nowhere would still be somewhere.
Are you somewhere too?
Of course. Nowhere is like infinity and beyond. It’s possible to be closer if you try. It’s impossible to arrive nowhere’
p. 133 ‘any moment that comes after time is aftertime.
Are we in aftertime then?
I am, but not you.
Why not me?
You’ve said you live in days, so you are still in time. You can’t live in aftertime’
p. 134 ‘i thought we had prepared him to live’
p. 135 ‘how ignorant and happy i was beforetime’
p. 136 ‘you can’t step into the same river twice’
p. 139 ‘I prefer a world made of the perishable, not the inevitable.
Inevitable makes time more bearable.
Time doesn’t make sense if not for the perishable’
p. 140 ‘dreams are but prologue to days, epilogue to other days, written by our faltering minds’. ‘Fundamentally dreaming is injustice inflicted upon whoever is being dreamed of?’
p. 141 ‘if days are where we live, I will always want to know how people live in their days’
p. 142 ‘what do you do all day?
Oh the things you don’t know. Dreaming. Dreaming. Thinking. Dreaming.’
p. 143 ‘what do you have to bear?
Things that are always with me, with it without a physical body’
p. 145 ‘what if we don’t have to believe in anything, perhaps living only requires resolutions’. ‘time thus broken down makes quicksand…what you call quicksand is it reality…other people live on other kinds of quicksand’
p. 146 ‘what if an abyss can be made into a natural habitat?’ ‘what we need is not a light that will lead us somewhere, but the resolution to be nowhere, even if it’s ever and forever’. ‘Life is imperfect, but it does mean something, no?
Yes, it’s a consolation prize, but i don’t live for consolation prizes’
p. 153 ‘a mins that sees no path or direction to flee despair can be expanded nevertheless.’ ‘Wishing only wounds the heart’
p. 156 ‘she represents the quintessential never-lasting news of good old time’
p. 158 ‘he wanted his heart to stop beating and his mind to rest…just to know how it would feel, released from destruction… breathing his bronzen breath at the azury centre of time.’
p. 160 ‘words not meant for me but picked up by me in any case’
p. 161 ‘writing fiction is to eavesdrop on your characters’ hearts’
p. 163 ‘will the memory paper catch words get to be said?’
p. 167 ‘words fall short, yes, but sometimes their shadows can reach the unspeakable… we look for some depth in words when we can’t find it in the three-dimensional world, no?’
p. 168 ‘here is where you are, not where i am. I am in fiction, he said. I am fiction now’
p. 170 ‘if one is not lost, can one be found again?’.
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
p. 397 ‘a body that gave birth to death’
p. 407 ‘remembering the past also meant remembering the dead’
p. 415 ‘white people are only required to represent themselves, not an entire race’
p. 452 ‘this is not about feeling something or about speaking words, this is about being, together.’
p. 407 ‘remembering the past also meant remembering the dead’
p. 415 ‘white people are only required to represent themselves, not an entire race’
p. 452 ‘this is not about feeling something or about speaking words, this is about being, together.’
Utopia by Thomas More
- p.viii ‘the only time i ever get to myself is what i steal from sleep’
- p.19 ‘isn’t this conception of absolute justice absolutely unjust?’
- p.29 ‘a happy state of society will never be achieved until philosophers are kings’
- p.39 ‘you wouldn’t abandon ship in a storm just because you couldn’t control the winds’. ‘what you can’t put right you must try to make as little wrong as possible’
- p.41 ‘he sees everyone else rushing into the street and getting soaked in the pouring rain. He knows if he went out too, he’d merely get equally wet. So he just stays indoors himself, and, as he can’t do anything about other people’s stupidity, comforts himself with the thought: ‘Well, i’m all right, anyway.’
- p.74 ‘the Utopians fail to understand why anyone should be so fascinated by the dull gleam of a tiny bit of stone, when he has all the stars in the sky to look at’. ‘Nor can they understand why a totally useless substance like gold should now, all over the world, be considered far more important than human beings, who gave it such value as it has’
- p.79 ‘Utopians therefore regard the enjoyment of life as the natural object of all human efforts’
- p.84 ‘there are also pleasures which satisfy no organic need, and relieve no previous discomfort. They merely act, in a mysterious but quite unmistakeable way, directly on our senses, and monopolise their reactions. Such is the pleasure of music.’
- p.93 ‘in fact you’re really leading a sort of posthumous existence, so why go on feeding germs?’
- p.102 ‘human beings are far more effectively united by kindness than by contracts, by feelings than by words’
- p.114 ‘there is a single divine power…diffused throughout this universe of ours, not as a physical substance, but as an active force. This power they call ‘The Parent’’
- p.117 ‘God made different people believe different things, because he wanted to be worshipped in many different ways’
- p.121 ‘the more they make slaves of themselves, the more everybody respects them’
- p.19 ‘isn’t this conception of absolute justice absolutely unjust?’
- p.29 ‘a happy state of society will never be achieved until philosophers are kings’
- p.39 ‘you wouldn’t abandon ship in a storm just because you couldn’t control the winds’. ‘what you can’t put right you must try to make as little wrong as possible’
- p.41 ‘he sees everyone else rushing into the street and getting soaked in the pouring rain. He knows if he went out too, he’d merely get equally wet. So he just stays indoors himself, and, as he can’t do anything about other people’s stupidity, comforts himself with the thought: ‘Well, i’m all right, anyway.’
- p.74 ‘the Utopians fail to understand why anyone should be so fascinated by the dull gleam of a tiny bit of stone, when he has all the stars in the sky to look at’. ‘Nor can they understand why a totally useless substance like gold should now, all over the world, be considered far more important than human beings, who gave it such value as it has’
- p.79 ‘Utopians therefore regard the enjoyment of life as the natural object of all human efforts’
- p.84 ‘there are also pleasures which satisfy no organic need, and relieve no previous discomfort. They merely act, in a mysterious but quite unmistakeable way, directly on our senses, and monopolise their reactions. Such is the pleasure of music.’
- p.93 ‘in fact you’re really leading a sort of posthumous existence, so why go on feeding germs?’
- p.102 ‘human beings are far more effectively united by kindness than by contracts, by feelings than by words’
- p.114 ‘there is a single divine power…diffused throughout this universe of ours, not as a physical substance, but as an active force. This power they call ‘The Parent’’
- p.117 ‘God made different people believe different things, because he wanted to be worshipped in many different ways’
- p.121 ‘the more they make slaves of themselves, the more everybody respects them’
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
p. 100 ‘we are all insects… groping towards something terrible or divine’
p. 118 ‘history is passing us by’
p. 132 ‘little kids are that way; they feel if their parents aren’t watching what they do then what they do isn’t real’
p. 136 ‘we’re nothing but water inside’
p. 138 ‘a weird time in which we are alive. We can travel anywhere we want, even to other planets. And for what? To sit day after day, declining into morale and hope. Falling into an interminable ennui’
p. 159 ‘it’s all darkness… nothing is true or certain. Right?’
p. 163 ‘the finite, private worry about my own particular skin’
p. 177 ‘he held it in his interior world, apart and secret, for himself alone’
p. 179 ‘Life is short, he thought. Art, or something not life, is long, stretching out endless, like concrete worm’
p. 183 ‘the paradox of our earthly situation’
p. 184 ‘there is no way in this; all is muddled. All chaos of light and dark; shadow and substance’
p. 205 ‘she tried to smile; she watched his face to see if she had. Reflection from his brain, caught my thoughts in rots’
p. 213 ‘I will go and find the small, live unseen.’ ‘Visit where things who cannot think nonetheless enjoy’. ‘Trees and zoos are not personal. I just clutch at human life. This has made me into a child, although that could be good. I could make it good’
p. 216 ‘small metal swirls, shapes that merely hinted rather than were’
p. 219 ‘enter me and inform what has been done, what it means, why. Compression of understanding into one finite squiggle’
p. 221 ‘i do not have to wait for death, for the decomposition of my animus as it wanders in search of a new womb. All the terrifying and be efficient deities; we will bypass them, and the smoky lights as well. And the couples in coitus. Everything except this light. I am ready to face without terror. Notice i do not blench’
p. 248 ‘truth, she thought. As terrible as death. But harder to find.’
p. 118 ‘history is passing us by’
p. 132 ‘little kids are that way; they feel if their parents aren’t watching what they do then what they do isn’t real’
p. 136 ‘we’re nothing but water inside’
p. 138 ‘a weird time in which we are alive. We can travel anywhere we want, even to other planets. And for what? To sit day after day, declining into morale and hope. Falling into an interminable ennui’
p. 159 ‘it’s all darkness… nothing is true or certain. Right?’
p. 163 ‘the finite, private worry about my own particular skin’
p. 177 ‘he held it in his interior world, apart and secret, for himself alone’
p. 179 ‘Life is short, he thought. Art, or something not life, is long, stretching out endless, like concrete worm’
p. 183 ‘the paradox of our earthly situation’
p. 184 ‘there is no way in this; all is muddled. All chaos of light and dark; shadow and substance’
p. 205 ‘she tried to smile; she watched his face to see if she had. Reflection from his brain, caught my thoughts in rots’
p. 213 ‘I will go and find the small, live unseen.’ ‘Visit where things who cannot think nonetheless enjoy’. ‘Trees and zoos are not personal. I just clutch at human life. This has made me into a child, although that could be good. I could make it good’
p. 216 ‘small metal swirls, shapes that merely hinted rather than were’
p. 219 ‘enter me and inform what has been done, what it means, why. Compression of understanding into one finite squiggle’
p. 221 ‘i do not have to wait for death, for the decomposition of my animus as it wanders in search of a new womb. All the terrifying and be efficient deities; we will bypass them, and the smoky lights as well. And the couples in coitus. Everything except this light. I am ready to face without terror. Notice i do not blench’
p. 248 ‘truth, she thought. As terrible as death. But harder to find.’
More...